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CDC and the Office of Population Affairs Release New Recommendations on Family Planning Services

April 30
,
2014
by: ASRM Office of Public Affairs
Published in ASRM Bulletin Volume 16, Number 23

Today, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ (HHS) Office of Population Affairs and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) released a new report, “Providing Quality Family Planning Services - Recommendations of CDC and the U.S. Office of Population Affairs.” These new recommendations can play an important role in improving the reproductive health of all Americans.

The recommendations were developed collaboratively by CDC and OPA, based on a rigorous systematic review of the available evidence and extensive input from a broad range of clinical experts. The recommendations define what services should be offered in a family planning visit and gives providers the information they need to improve the quality of family planning services.

The recommendations:

Describe what services should be offered in a family planning visit: contraceptive services, pregnancy testing and counseling, advice for achieving pregnancy, basic infertility, preconception health, and STD services. They also describe how these services should be provided.

Address the needs of both female and male clients; describe how to provide services to special populations such as adolescents; provide detailed guidance on how to provide contraceptive services; and encourage providers to discuss contraceptive effectiveness with clients seeking to prevent pregnancy.

Encourage using the family planning visit to provide other essential preventive health services such as blood pressure screening and breast and cervical cancer screening.

Additional tools are being developed to help providers obtain the resources and support to improve services based on the new recommendations and will be available at the Family Planning National Training Centers’ website at www.fpntc.org/resources/new-recommendation

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